The invention relates to a vehicle for the transport of molecular substance, such as DNA, RNA, protein, PNA, pharmaceuticals of lipophilic and lipophobic character, into eukaryotic cells. The invention furthermore relates to a process for the preparation of the vehicle, its use and compositions of agents for applying or carrying out the invention.
Under certain conditions, eukaryotic cells absorb DNA, proteins and other molecules. The absorption rate, however, is usually low. Additionally, the transport of the molecular substance is not predeterminable with respect to the nature of the cells and the cell compartment or the site in the intracellular region.
In order to improve, in particular, the absorption of DNA into eukaryotic cells, it is known to use viral vectors as vehicles for transport into the cell. The use of viral vectors is disadvantageous because in this case the cotransfection of viral genomes can occur.
It is furthermore disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,599 to lock molecular substance such as DNA into eukaryotic cells using empty virus capsids, in particular polyoma capsids. Even in this process cotransfection of viral genomes cannot be excluded. Additionally, molecules whose size exceed the internal volume of the polyoma capsid cannot be packed therein. Finally, synthetic preparation of polyoma capsids, which comes into consideration as one possibility of avoiding cotransfection, is extremely difficult and cost-intensive.
The object of the invention is to eliminate the disadvantages of the prior art, in particular to indicate a vehicle for the transport of molecular substance into eukaryotic cells which can be used universally and can be prepared simply and in a cost-effective manner.
This object is achieved by the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are clear from the features of claims 2-15.